Japan Health Ministry: "Whereabouts of 30 nuclear power plant subcontractors unknown" due to Tepco's "sloppy" record keeping

The Mainichi Daily News of Japan has reported that Tokyo Electric Power Company has lost track of around 30 workers who helped battle the nuclear crisis at Fukushima Daiichi in the first few weeks after the earthquake and tsunami unleashed catastrophic radiation releases from melting reactor cores and boiled-dry radioactive waste storage pools. Tepco says that none of the missing 30 workers got more than 25 rem of external exposure, according to their dosimeters (which is still significant -- prior to the emergency, Japanese nuclear workers were only allowed to get at most 5 rem per year; German nuclear workers are only allowed to get 2 rem per year). But Tepco does not know about these workers' internal exposures -- more hazardous than their external exposures. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has criticized Tepco for "sloppy administration."